For the most part, stairways in houses tend to be on the edge of spaces. They will hug a wall across the side of a room or occupy their own room tangent to a hall or other space. Rarely will stairs land in the midst of a room. This can be partially spatial but also structural, since it’s easier to anchor a stair in a wall compared to suspend it from a floor.

Yet those rarities will be the focus. These examples illustrate what occurs when one chooses to integrate a pair of freestanding staircase into a home.

Dan and Hila Israelevitz- Architects

First of all, stairs which lands in the midst of a room become an object. In this event each the bits — treads, risers, stringers, guardrails — take on a strong presence as the stairway separates the kitchen from the living room.

Dan and Hila Israelevitz- Architects

Looking the flip side, it’s apparent that two sets of stairs are stacked within the same footprint. This requires the need for guardrails at the perimeter of the ground’s opening. They way those vertical pickets differ from the angled pickets of the staircase provide this layout a lot of its own distinction.

Dan and Hila Israelevitz- Architects

Another shot of the staircase illustrates how the stairway is dangled from the ceiling over and stabilized by cables anchored to the wall. Clearly these are not the main structural supports (the metal stringers underneath the measures do the majority of the job as they span from floor to floor), but they serve to decrease movement of the staircase as people walk up or down them.

Descending these stairs, an individual can turn right to head to the kitchen down a hallway, or turn left to head to the lower degree. This photograph gives the impression that the stair is rather shallow, gracefully bringing people to this floor; another photograph makes it clear that is an illusion.

The stairs are clearly steeper in this view, but notice how the stairs down are next to the top pair of stairs, not under as in the initial case. Still another difference: The guardrails end at the ceiling, rather than extending beyond into the opening. The angled grid of the guardrails provides the staircase a unique presence.

Bernard Marson, Architect

These stairs occupy a prominent place in a really opening living space, but appear much lighter than the preceding illustrations. This stems from a couple of details: the single steel-beam stringer supporting the measures; the measures themselves, which are wood treads held up by metal angles; along with the thin cable which makes up the guardrail.

Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis Architects

In these staircase, the guardrail at the opening in the floor is translucent, seemingly at odds with all the lightness of the staircase. This surface ties the staircase to the design of the kitchen, the guardrail is about the same height and material as the lower kitchen cabinets.

CWB Architects

These stacked stairs proceed to demonstrate how the detailing of the guardrails impacts the distance. The mix of wood and steel provides the stairway a strong presence, reinforced by the little circulation space into which it’s placed.

Christine L. Cardeño

Talking of guardrails, this stairway includes a web-like composition of steel which concurrently works as a guardrail and as supports to the treads. It is quite a design, one which wishes to be admired when it comes time to supply the distance.

Prestige Metal

While it’s evident this stairway wends its way to a complex piece of construction and opening over, which you can learn from this case is the method by which in which the underside of the stair can still be enclosed to function as, for instance, a cupboard. Stairs landing in distance are not limited to ones which float over the floor.

Narita Architects

Here is a stairway that is tucked into its own light-soaked alcove, but that still lands within a distance. The distance underneath and around isn’t necessarily useful, so this tactic was probably used to create the stair to a item.

Narita Architects

A closer view of the same stairway makes it clear why it’s made to an object: It is a really well-detailed contemporary stairway in wood, steel and cable. With lean treads and slender riser supports, the stairway additionally lets in lots of light through the walls, yet another fantastic reason to cut back the wall on the side and allow the stairs land in the space.

Moon Design + Build

This stairway, which also accesses a attic space overhead, is a strange beast, in which the treads are shifted on either side to receive each ascending or descending step. At first glance it appears like a plate or some sort of stair workout machine, rather than a usable stair.

Moon Design + Build

A closer look also reveals that the total width is rather narrow, so a handrail is provided on only 1 side. (In anticipation of code remarks, note that this is a UK project.) I’m wondering exactly what the staircase are like to use, after one has over the initial wariness. In any case, it’s apparent why those stairs are made into objects in space.

Elite Metalcraft Co. Ltd

It’d be remiss to talk about stairs which occupy fundamental regions of chambers without at least one spiral stair case. This one is boxed out beneath the treads and risers using a completed soffit, but the guardrails are curved glass, which lets a whole lot of light into this corner of the home. The opening over a spiral staircase draws a circle in the ceiling, prompting it to wish to occupy a central space, particularly if it’s generous and sweeping like this one.

More:
Artful Stairs: Continuity in Steel
Cantilevered Stairs: Running Air
Tiny Office Above the Stairs